You do, every goddamned day. Why? You don’t notice what makes today different from yesterday. I tried something new this morning, in the cold darkness of my woodshop where I began my day. I lit a candle and focused my eyes on it as I did my breath work. Having read so much about Sanyama,…
The Obstacle is the Way
I have been doing stairlaps 5 times a week since July. At first, it was enough just to try and make it up the stairs and back down ten times. But after a week or so, I began enjoying it more, and I started adding a little to each rep. Once I added an "Idea…
Why I Journal | Copy | Breathe
Three reasons: I want to improve my mood, memory, focus.I want to live the life of my gifts, not my scraps.I want freedom. I define freedom as the lengthening of the space between my urge to stim or compensate or take any action, and my decision to chose a response.
St. Frances for the godless
I've been working on a Neuro-diversity version of the St. Frances prayer. Something about replacing: Loneliness with solitudeMomentum with tractionIndecision with contemplationIsolation with interdependenceImprovisation with choreographyWishing with active challengesHoping with engagement in real lifeRegret with acceptanceEmotional volitility with granularity I don't know what to do about the religious aspects of the prayer. Even though they…
Free resources for newly diagnosed
You may want a coach, but until you have the snap on hand, there are plenty of free resources If you're in Oregon - Oregon health shares (https://www.healthshareoregon.org/) is free, and it covered my visits to Northwest ADHD (https://nw-adhd.com/), including visits with a Psychologist and a Nurse Practitioner, and also covered the cost of my…
Stimming – but WHY?
Ever wondered why you're stimming? ADHDers need attention and energy regulation: - Eliminate / manage distractions - Muster attention / focus - Retrieve memories Developmental Trauma folks stim for a different set of reasons: - Self comfort - Distraction from pain - Ignore acute fear - Repress shame - Negotiate disappointment So What? Experiment: Make…
Welcome to the Mindless 15!
In addition to my Journal-Copy-Breathe morning routine, I've been adding stairlaps at the park across the street. About Stairlaps I started doing them in July, a few weeks before we were planning to do a backpacking trip on the southeastern side of Mt St Helens, which is just a 90 minute drive from our front…
Pursuit of Happiness or Pleasure?
In The Swerve, I read that when the Bill of Rights was drafted, the word Happiness was a last-minute substitution for Pleasure. Among the founding fathers, Jefferson was not the only student of Epicureanism, holding pleasure as a divine source of truth. The more Puritanical of his peers insisted on the downgrade. Imagine if US judicial…
Dispatches from late Summer 2021
These days when I'm silent or quiet, it's not because I've forgotten about y'all, it's because I'm busy putting into practice something I learned. To wit, building a morning exercise routine I can and will actually do, that I can fit into the part of my day I own before the moths of necessity have…
ADHD means having to say you’re sorry
I made a joke the other day at the kitchen table, joshing around with my family. Over the next few hours, I got that sense of dread, but right at the time, I was not even aware of the offense. But after a few days, I had to ask my wife: why have you gone…
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